【○隻字片羽○雪泥鴻爪○】

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

既然有緣到此一訪，
何妨放鬆一下妳(你)的心緒，
歇一歇妳(你)的腳步，

讓我陪妳(你)喝一杯香醇的咖啡吧！

這裡是一個完全開放的交心空間，
躺在綠意漾然的草原上，望著晴空的藍天，
白雲和微風嬉鬧著，無拘無束的赤著腳，
可以輕輕鬆鬆的道出心中情。

天馬行空的釋放著胸懷，緊緊擁抱著彼此的情緒。
共同分享著彼此悲歡離合的酸甜苦辣。
互相激勵，互相撫慰，互相提攜，
一齊向前邁進。

也因為有妳(你)的來訪，我們認識了。
請讓我能擁有機會回拜於妳(你)空間的機會。
謝謝妳(你)！

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2015年2月28日星期六

3 reasons why gender parity is a win-win

"To attract the best people, we need to cast a wide net and forget divisions of gender, race, age and sexual orientation – or any other label."

Competitiveness

Economic Growth and Social Inclusion

Employment Skills and Human Capital

3 reasons why gender parity is a win-win

By Sheila Penrose

Jan 22 2015

Looking at my fellow Davos attendees, I see women who lead, impact their professional and personal communities, and motivate young leaders. They contribute invaluable perspectives to the companies, academic institutions, governments and social organisations they represent, as well as to the conversations at Davos. They make a difference.

To stay competitive means having the right people in leadership who can anticipate opportunities, stay a step ahead of the issues and achieve results. Organisations that overlook half of the world’s population overlook half of the world’s talent.

This is where gender parity comes into play, and why we have the opportunity to put it at the forefront of the global agenda.

Full talent pool

In the business world, companies that hold leadership accountable, create diverse boards, develop inclusive cultures and apply targeted recruitment and retention policies are more successful. They win more when they take advantage of the full pool of talent, and develop and promote all qualified leaders.

Achieving gender parity has far broader implications than simply winning business:

For corporates: FORTUNE 500 companies with the greatest representation of women in management positions delivered a return to shareholders 34% higher than for companies with the lowest representation.
For economies: Closing the disparity between male and female employment would have huge economic implications for the global economy, boosting United States gross domestic product by as much as 9%, Eurozone GDP by 13% and Japanese by 16%, according to Goldman Sachs.
For society and the public: Educated, healthy women are likely to have healthier and more educated children, creating a virtuous cycle for any community or country. When the number of women involved in political decision-making reaches a critical mass, their decisions – which take into account the needs of a wider segment of society – lead to more inclusive results, as shown in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2014.

Yet, women are not favourably represented at the board level in any industry. They make up just 26% of board executives in the food and beverage industries, 21% in the financial sector and 15% in real estate. I take pride in serving as the chairman of the board of directors in an underrepresented industry, real estate, where two of my nine fellow board members are women. Global organisations, such as the 30% Club, target female representation at the board level by setting benchmarks and timelines. Launched in 2010, this organisation challenged companies to have 30% women in leadership roles. While currently seeing 23% representation, up from 12.6% in 2010, we aren’t there yet – and shouldn’t stop at 30%.

Reflect the world’s diversity

As Professor Klaus Schwab said in the Forum’s 2014 Global Gender Gap Report, to accelerate the pace of change, we must be consistent in measuring progress, rigorous in identifying solutions, and collaborative in our actions. Companies need to create workplaces where the best talent can thrive. Business, civil society, educational institutions, public figures and media all are also critical in empowering women while engaging men in the process.

We have the opportunity to continue moving the needle by establishing processes that attract top female and diverse talent, and retain and promote them. To attract the best people, we need to cast a wide net and forget divisions of gender, race, age and sexual orientation – or any other label. To compete effectively, we need to reflect the diversity of the world in which we live and work. Making progress in the business community will positively impact the broader economic environment.

Author: Sheila Penrose is the Chairman of the Board at JLL, a financial and professional services firm specialising in commercial real estate services and investment management.

Image: Thailand’s Prime Minister-elect Yingluck Shinawatra meets with her economic team at the Puea Thai Party’s headquarters in Bangkok July 6, 2011. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang

Posted by Sheila Penrose - 09:17

All opinions expressed are those of the author. The World Economic Forum Blog is an independent and neutral platform dedicated to generating debate around the key topics that shape global, regional and industry agendas.

4 ways to increase your influence

In case you missed it: How do successful leaders exert their influence?

Employment Skills and Human Capital

Leadership

4 ways to increase your influence

By Joseph Grenny

Feb 19 2015

I find it ironic that when I ask leaders—even good ones—what constitutes leadership, I often get vague, disparate, and vapid responses. You’d think this educated and successful population could offer crisp and concrete definitions of their own crucial work. Instead, you hear a dozen tangents of real leadership like energizing, visioning, pathfinding and modeling.

Fortunately, not all leaders are missing the mark. I once met a leader who has a concrete expression of leadership on the tip of his tongue. Tim Tassopoulos, EVP of Operations at Chick-fil-A, says it this way: leadership is intentional influence. I couldn’t agree more.

For more than 30 years my colleagues and I have helped leaders increase their capacity for influencing change. But it came as a surprise that prior to helping them learn how to influence, we had to draw their attention to it as their core work.

Tim, on the other hand, understands that success comes down to whether one of his 50,000 front-line associates with a few discretionary minutes decides to lean against a wall or clean tables. Tim’s success or failure as a leader does not come down to whether he is charismatic, visionary, or inspirational, but to whether people behave in ways that improve results. Period.

Given that few leaders can even define leadership, it’s no surprise their performance is mediocre at best. We studied the successes and failures of more than 1000 leaders from 50 global companies to influence strategically critical behavior change in their companies. We were stunned to discover that fewer than one in 20 had any evidence of success in spite of their belief that change was crucial. As we combed through the data, some key insights emerged that helped us understand why so few leaders either grasp or exert influence well:

1. Leaders act as if it’s not their job to address entrenched habits

Most leaders put a great deal of time into crafting strategy, selecting winning products, and engaging with analysts, shareholders, and major customers. But few realize the success or failure of their grand schemes lies in influencing the behavior of the people who will have to execute on the big ideas—their employees.

By contrast, the most influential leaders—the 5 percent who succeed at changing behavior—spend as much as half of their time thinking about, and actively, influencing the behaviors they know will lead to top performance. The 95 percent who dither and fail tend to delegate what they dismiss as “change management” to others.

2. Leaders lack a theory of influence

Very few leaders can even answer the question, “How do you change the behavior of a large group of people?” And yet, what they’re ultimately paid to do is align people to execute on decisions. Imagine discovering, just as the anesthesia is taking effect, that your heart surgeon—the one hovering over your chest with a scalpel—is working off a “gut hunch” about how to conduct a bypass. Unless leaders become articulate about a repeatable and effective way to influence behavior—they’ll continue to rack up predictably high failure rates at leading change.

3. Leaders confuse talking with influencing

Many leaders think influence consists of little more than talking people into doing things. It’s no wonder most influence efforts start with slide presentations or rallies. But profound, persistent, and overwhelming problems demand more than verbal persuasion. Anyone who’s ever tried to “talk” a smoker into quitting knows there’s a lot more to behavior change than words (see our BS Guys video).

4. Leaders believe in silver bullets

When leaders actually attempt to influence new behavior, they commonly fall into the trap of thinking deeply ingrained bad habits can be changed with a single technique.

They host star-studded retreats and hand out inspiring posters and think people will line up for change. Still others believe it’s all about incentives and so they tinker with the performance management system or tie new behaviors to executive bonuses. The research shows that when leaders rely on just one simple source of influence (like training or incentives or verbal persuasion) to drive change, they almost always fail.

Over the past 30-plus years, my colleagues and I have sought out and studied a different kind of leader. We’ve tried to find those who had remarkable abilities to influence change—rapidly, profoundly, and sustainably.

We’ve studied the methods used by one remarkable influencer who, with no formal authority, changed behavior in thousands of U.S. hospitals. We’ve looked first hand at one influencer who saved five million lives from AIDS by influencing behavior change in a country of 60 million. We worked with a CEO who, within 12 months, influenced deeply entrenched habits in employees with an average of 26 years tenure.

What we’ve learned is that when you know what you’re doing, change can happen relatively quickly. And it all starts with gaining greater clarity about what leadership really means, then finding a way of thinking about the fundamental principles of influence.

This article is published in collaboration with LinkedIn. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

To keep up with the Agenda subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Author: Joseph Grenny is the Co-chairman of VitalSmarts.

Image: A Businesswoman is silhouetted as she makes her way under the Arche de la Defense, in the financial district west of Paris, November 20, 2012. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann.

Posted by Joseph Grenny - 10:20

『全球瘋傳，臺灣人不告訴你的，228事件。』臺灣吧-Taiwan Bar 第5集

Your Brain on a Rom-Com

So that's why that Ryan Gosling flick gave you all the feels.

PUBLISHED: FEBRUARY 26, 2015 | BY JESSICA MIGALA

SHUTTERSTOCK

The best-ever excuse to admit you're a sucker for sappy stories: They're ace for your health. Here's how the plot unfolds...

The Meet-Cute

Feel a little thrill at the would-be couple's first run-in? The actors' body language determines how you interpret the scene. Staring into each others' eyes? Ahh, love. Trying to stare into each others' eyes but ogling elsewhere? Oh yeah, lust.
Awkward conversations (or sassy monologues) aren't just funny. They help out your ticker. Belly laughing can lower blood pressure as much as exercise does (and can burn 40 calories per 10 minutes!).

The Buildup

Your brain's empathy center is now activated and ordering a release of hormones such as dopamine and oxytocin, which make you feel as ifyou are the one falling in love. Cue butterflies in your stomach or a faster heartbeat.
Seriously, you really feel it. Studies suggest that when the (so-hot) hero strokes the (way-gorg) heroine's arm, the area of your brain that interprets touch can light up.
And just like that...trouble in paradise. Rom-com writers use fights and breakups to hold your attention, because strife prompts your noggin to dredge up your own romantic woes. You now totally identify with these characters.

The Happy Ending

Problems solved. You walk away in a much better mood, thanks to a laughter-induced endorphin rush. A feel-good finale also puts the kibosh on stress hormones. In fact, watching a romantic comedy before bed can help prevent insomnia.
The story's comical moments can imprint in your brain, allowing you to recall your fave film's dialogue whenever you want—a process that can boost your long-term memory.
And by churning up personal issues—along with possible resolutions—the movie can prompt a cathartic release of feelings. That's why cinema therapists (yep, they have Ph.D.'s and everything) find flicks so useful: The plots can unlock reactions that might otherwise have remained buried.
Score! One study found that couples who watched, then discussed, such films were more likely to still be a pair three years later.

Sources: Stephanie Cacioppo, Ph.D., The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine; Michael Miller, M.D., University of Maryland School of Medicine; Birgit Wolz, Ph.D., cinema therapist in Lake County, California

For more sex and health news, pick up the March 2015 issue of Women's Health, on newsstands now.

5 Covert Ways to Increase His Stamina in Bed

He never has to know…

PUBLISHED: JANUARY 27, 2015 | BY ZAHRA BARNES

Nothing can kill your sex buzz like being all caught up in the moment with a totally revved engine when the guy orgasms, putting the kibosh on one of the most fun ways to get your heartrate up. It’s an unfortunate fact of nature that women usually take a leisurely path to orgasm while guys often opt for the shortest route possible, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it. These endurance-boosters will help ensure you both have enough time to reach orgasm, then cuddle together and bask in the glow of feel-good hormones.

1. Add Pumpkin to Your Grocery List
Here’s a reason to get your guy addicted to the gourd: “Many people don’t know that there’s research that says pumpkin boost men’s libido,” says Ava Cadell, Ph.D., author of Neuroloveology and the Sexual Health Expo’s 2015 sexpert of the year. “Pumpkin seeds get the blood flowing 40 percent faster to the male genitals and boost sex drive in general,” says Cadell. Even though they’re delicious straight-up or in a sweet and spicy recipe, Cadell says treats that have pumpkin—even cake and pie—can also do the trick.

2. Pull His Testicles
Not hard, obviously! You don’t want to hurt the guy. What you do want to do is prevent the semen from traveling through his testicles, into his shaft and out of his urethra. “When a man is about to ejaculate, his testicles rise, and soon he’ll be at the point of no return," says Cadell. "If you want him to last longer, then you want to pull his testicles down toward his feet." That puts you in the driver’s seat so you can let go when you’re ready for him to, well, let go. As a bonus, you can put this one to work whether you’re having sex, giving a blow job, or trying your hand at a handie.

3. Switch It Up
While it’s rare for a guy to absolutely hate any one sex position, most men have their favorites that can bring them to orgasm in a nanosecond. “I would say doggy is the most popular position men like to orgasm in," says Cadell. "One thing to do is go through other positions instead of just doing that one." She recommends trying out something like this: Start in missionary, move to scissors, get on top, work on your spooning, then finally transition into doggy. He’ll last much longer than if you start off in doggy from the get-go, but of course you can change up the routine based on both of your preferences. To figure out when you should move things along, pay attention to his physical cues. “When a man is about to come, he breathes much faster," says Cadell. "As soon as his breath starts to pick up, then you want to change positions."

4. Get a Pleasure Ring
As far as sex toys go, a pleasure ring is a low-key addition to your bedside drawer. “It’s a flexible ring that stretches to any man’s size," says Cadell. "You put it at the base of the penis, and it helps him stay harder longer because it traps the blood in his shaft." These toys were specifically designed to boost a man’s endurance, but he doesn’t have to know that’s why you got it. “Some brands like Screaming O have pleasure rings that have vibrators on top to stimulate the clitoris," says Cadell. That way, you can just bring it out as something to help you orgasm. Pro tip: The type that has a ring on both top and bottom might overstimulate him, exacerbating the problem.

5. Turn Kegels into a Game
“We all need to exercise every day, but many men don’t realize they need to exercise their penises just like they do their biceps or quadriceps,” says Cadell. That’s where you come in. When your guy is standing and has an erection, drape a mini towel over his penis. Tell him that if he lifts his penis 20 times (or 10 if he’s a total beginner), he can have you in whichever position he wants. Once he’s completed those, move the towel just over the head of his penis, and throw another incentive in there if he can crank out 20 more reps. “Sexercise in the form of kegels strengthens a man’s pelvic floor and can result in longer-lasting erections and even help with premature ejaculation,” says Cadell. Try to work them into the plan at least once a week to see (and feel!) the results.

How can we make digital growth inclusive for all?

"The danger is that the benefits will flow to the few at the expense of the many."

Future of the Internet

How can we make digital growth inclusive for all?

By Dennis Nally

Jan 24 2015

All around us, we can see how digital technologies are transforming the economies in which we live, the cities we inhabit, the way we learn, and the lives we lead.

Experience shows that growth and change in the digital age are faster and more pervasive than ever before, affecting more people at greater speed than was possible with previous generations of technology.

However, as the global economic recovery continues, a concern has begun to emerge in countries across the world. It’s that while growth – supported by digital technologies – has returned, many people feel the resulting benefits are passing them by, and failing to directly affect them and their families. The underlying risk is that exclusion from digital advances may extend into exclusion from social and economic opportunities, leaving millions of people effectively locked out of the next phase of global growth and development.

One of mankind’s biggest challenges

In my view, ensuring that growth in the digital age benefits populations across the world is one of the biggest issues facing mankind today. It’s also a challenge that I believe global business and governments have a responsibility to address. Success will demand sustained effort from many parties worldwide, and while  we don’t pretend to have all the answers, we’re determined to play our part. And our shared goal should be to create a world where everyone has the opportunity to benefit from the digital age on more equal terms.

It’s an objective that’s easy to state, but whose boundaries are hard to define – owing to the vast array of elements it involves. From microfinance to mobile communications in emerging countries; from eHealthcare to mobile banking; from smart cities to government services delivered over the web – all these components will play a role. But arguably the most important factor in creating equal access to digital opportunities is education, a space where technology is opening up new possibilities and capabilities by the day.

This is an area that my company, PwC, takes extremely seriously – and where we’re devoting substantial time and resources worldwide. Take the United States, where youth education is a huge issue. In 2012 our US firm launched ‘Earn Your Future’, a multi-year US$160 million investment consisting of US$60 million in cash and one million service hours, devoting the time and talents of our 39,000 people across the US to benefit more than 2.5 million students and educators.

This is just one of many educational initiatives that we’re undertaking. And a common focus of these efforts is around finding new and better ways to harness, apply and fund digital technologies in education – and then to carry the benefits forward as students graduate into the workforce.

With this latter goal in mind, our global  ‘Adapt to Survive’ project has united the two most comprehensive sources of talent data in the world – the real-time behaviours drawn from LinkedIn’s 277 million members, and employer information from PwC’s Saratoga database of people and performance metrics – to create a ‘Talent Adaptability Score’ that evaluates a country’s ability to match talent with opportunity.

Three key insights

So, what have our efforts to improve access to education and opportunity taught us? I’d like to highlight three insights. The first is that the next step in the evolution of education will be the weaving-in of technology into the social fabric of the educational process, with all stakeholders – teachers, administration and parents – fully committed to improving access and outcomes through digital integration. This advance is more imminent in some countries than others, but needs to be pursued everywhere.

The second insight is around the resources needed to enable digital progress. As my ongoing conversations with people across education and technology consistently underline, the full power of digital technology to support learning and equality of opportunity can only be realised if sufficient investment is forthcoming. And this investment requires a clear and robust business case. So an ability to measure the tangible impacts of investments in education – including the benefits both for business and also for society as a whole – is critical. Again, this is an area where we’re actively developing new tools and approaches.

Third, as digitisation continues to advance, the working environment that today’s students will join is changing radically and irreversibly – heralding sweeping change in employment opportunities and major dilemmas for employers. For example, millennial recruits are ambitious, tech-savvy and self-confident, expecting to advance rapidly to senior management positions. But their older colleagues are working longer. So, as companies grow and opportunities emerge, who’ll get the top jobs? Organisations need to work out how they’ll answer such questions.

As the world faces up to a new era of digitally-enabled growth, it’s entering uncharted territory – and the danger is that the benefits will flow to the few at the expense of the many. In my view, such a world would be neither fair nor sustainable. Across education and a host of other fields, let’s work together to ensure that growth in the digital age is inclusive – for the good of us all.

Author: Dennis Nally is Chairman of Pricewaterhouse Coopers International

Image: A man types on a computer keyboard in Warsaw in this February 28, 2013 illustration file picture. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel.

Posted by Dennis Nally - 04:08

How is the mobile economy changing the global economy?

"In less than 15 years, adoption of 3G and 4G technology has grown to nearly 3 billion connections, and that number is expected to exceed 8 billion by 2020."

Economic Growth and Social Inclusion

How is the mobile economy changing the global economy?

By Steve Mollenkopf

Jan 24 2015

More than 150 years ago, the far-sighted French photographer, artist and balloonist Gaspard-Félix Tournachon said the three defining elements of modernity were “photography, electricity and aeronautics.”

If he were alive today, Tournachon would surely name a fourth: connectivity.

We now live in a world shaped and defined by our ability to reach friends, loved ones, business partners and the legions of people in our networks no matter where we are and no matter how far away they may be. And we don’t just reach into our pockets and pull out a device that lets us talk with one another. We video-chat, we share photos, we transmit biomedical data, we access all manner of written and high-definition video media, we work and we play in more ways than probably anyone could now quantify.

Our children will never know a world when this wasn’t possible, yet a decade and a half ago these wireless wonders were the stuff of science fiction.

Now, the mobile technology behind this age of connectivity isn’t just enhancing and defining our daily lives, it is guiding and enriching our communities and our world on a macroeconomic level.

The mobile industry: it just keeps growing

A new study from the Boston Consulting Group sought to analyse the economic impact of mobile communications on consumers, businesses and nations, with deeper examinations of the impact on Brazil, China, Germany, India, South Korea and the United States. The results, drawn from government, engineering and market data, as well as surveys of businesses and consumers, are eye-opening, especially for the users of wireless technology.

The expanding 4G networks that are already widespread in many industrialized nations offer data speeds that are 12,000 times faster than the speeds of 2G, one of the most resonating engineering miracles in history.

At the same time, mobile subscription costs per megabyte of transmitted data fell 99% from 2005 to 2013, and smartphones are now available for as little as $40. The reason mobility is so affordable: scale. In less than 15 years, adoption of 3G and 4G technology has grown to nearly 3 billion connections, and that number is expected to exceed 8 billion by 2020.

Meanwhile, in the six countries surveyed, the annual value of mobile gross domestic product, or mGDP – spending on mobile devices, mobile connectivity and mobile commerce – is more than $1.2 trillion. Yes, trillion. The United States has the largest absolute mGDP, standing at $548 billion, or about 3.2% of GDP, which exceeds the economic contribution of the auto industry. The Boston Consulting Group also calculated the aggregate value of mobile technologies – the value derived by consumers from use of their wireless devices – to be roughly $6.4 trillion.

Mobile technology is especially valuable for consumers in emerging markets. BCG reports that in China and India, the value to consumers exceeded 40% of their annual income.

The business case for mobile

It also levels the playing field for small and medium-sized enterprises, the report found. SMEs that reported using at least three mobile applications in their operations or marketing and sales work saw revenue rise two times faster than other similarly sized firms and created jobs up to six times faster than their peers. In emerging markets, mobile tech is allowing SMEs to leapfrog older generations of technology still widely used in more industrialized countries, and the percentage of these “mobile leaders” in China, India and Brazil is higher than in their more developed counterparts.

The study predicts that if more SMEs expanded at the rate of the “mobile leaders”, an additional 7 million jobs could be created in the six countries studied over the next three years.

But none of this happens in a vacuum.

Keeping the progress going

The study finds a direct correlation between these technological advances and their economic benefits, and the rule-of-law systems that allows this innovation to take place and be brought to market. It notes the core technology innovators for 2G, 3G and 4G wireless – Qualcomm is among them – “take enormous risks by spending heavily on research and development with no guarantee of return on investment. Companies focused on mobile’s core technologies invest a larger share of revenue (21%) in R&D than any other industry except biotechnology – and more than all other R&D-heavy industries.”

And that, the study concludes, offers a roadmap for future development technologically and economically.

The vast majority of surveyed consumers, of course, want faster data speeds, more wireless coverage, more battery life and many other improvements – at a time when data traffic is already expected to increase by 1,000 times before this decade is over.

Such future growth, BCG says, depends on continuing the policies that enabled the growth to date, including “strong patent protection to encourage large and risky investments in mobile technology innovation”, and preservation of the wireless industry standards process that brings together companies from throughout the industry to solve complex technology problems and make those solutions widely shared.

This extraordinary change isn’t ancient history. We have seen the wondrous pace of technological evolution accelerate before our eyes, and we know why it happened and what it has accomplished.

At a time when regulators and legislators are reexamining patent laws and pondering the best ways to nurture innovation, it is worth policy-makers and industry leaders taking a moment to look at this mobile evolution, this mobile revolution, and think about what we must do to keep these advances going.

Author: Steve Mollenkopf is Chief Executive Officer of Qualcomm Incorporated

Image: The Pierre building is seen through a stairway as customers enter a retail store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York September 20, 2013. REUTERS/Adrees Latif.

Posted by Steve Mollenkopf - 03:59

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2015年2月28日星期六